Dean tells Des Moines Register "I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."
I've read the dissents (elsewhere; this explosive topic seems curiously absent from this blog) from those who say we should reach out to the Confederate flag types. I wonder: would they feel the same if a Democratic candidate said he wanted "to be the candidate for people who wear 'AIDS Kills Fags Dead' T-shirts"?!? I mean, think about this--it's one thing to say "I want to get Southern working class voters back"; but quite another to specifically talk about trying to pander to "Stars and Bars" racists.
And of course, the fact is that Dean hasn't a chance in hell of getting those voters anyway. A cruel irony for him--this could really hurt him (right on the heels of the Sharpton flap over AA) and he risked this with little chance of electoral gain from these appeals to Southern rednecks.
This has more potential for harm than his previous gaffes (at least in the primary season) for the following reasons:
(1) This one ignites the powder keg of race;
(2) Unlike the "America won't always have the strongest military" statement, this one hurts him most among Democrats rather than among moderates and independents;
(3) Unlike the old statements on Medicare, Social Security, affirmative action, etc., this one is brand new--and he has said it twice!